Guild Wars 2

Vissarion.6509:

Everyone is at Lion’s Arch doing Fractals.

This is the truth. Lion’s Arch has overflow on most servers.

Remember those days of doing laps of the capital city on your flying mount waiting for a group? Welcome back!

Ethics.4519:

What you seem to forget or ignore, is looking at the total number. You have yet to answer my question as to why, on peak hours, there will be 6 to 7 servers full, and then no servers full during off-peak hours.

Once you answer that question logically with your rationale, then maybe I might start to believe you.

As the other person said, you’re arguing against empirical evidence.

It’s not evidence. You’re taking words on your screen and interpreting them in a way that makes sense to you. There’s a disconnect between what info we are given and the conclusions that should be drawn. None of us can connect the two, only Anet can if they choose.

Clark Skinner.4902:

Ethics.4519:

What you seem to forget or ignore, is looking at the total number. You have yet to answer my question as to why, on peak hours, there will be 6 to 7 servers full, and then no servers full during off-peak hours.

Once you answer that question logically with your rationale, then maybe I might start to believe you.

As the other person said, you’re arguing against empirical evidence.

It’s not evidence. You’re taking words on your screen and interpreting them in a way that makes sense to you. There’s a disconnect between what info we are given and the conclusions that should be drawn. None of us can connect the two, only Anet can if they choose.

But Acidic Vision and many other people in this thread made the connection and it’s a totally logical explanation why we have these fluctuations during different times of the day. Of course we can connect the two things, we’re thinking human beings.

I think it’s quite obvious that the fluctuations come from people going to bed/waking up. The original post from the dev (was he even a dev?) was just written in such a misleading way that was prone to misinterpretation.

Namu.5712:

1024am my time (mountain time) on a Thursday morning.

I play in the early morning, these servers I garantee you will not ever change population wise from primetime to early morning. Because I have watched carefully for weeks for the chance to transfer.

And if caps increase it will be accross the board for top servers and obvious, a flux of a server or two will not happen.

1024 isn’t exactly an off peak hour. Also in your SS you can see only a couple of full, log back on peak hours around 7/8 and you’ll see a lot more are full.

1) The infamous quote was vague and from a CC. A CC is not a dev, so you’re proving your ignorance by saying “A dev said this”
2) Every single day they go full, and then go very high. Anet is not increasing population server every single day.
3) Off-peak and peak hours are going to vary because you’re combining US hours vs European (around +5hours) and Australian (around +13 hours)

Clark Skinner.4902:

Ethics.4519:

What you seem to forget or ignore, is looking at the total number. You have yet to answer my question as to why, on peak hours, there will be 6 to 7 servers full, and then no servers full during off-peak hours.

Once you answer that question logically with your rationale, then maybe I might start to believe you.

As the other person said, you’re arguing against empirical evidence.

It’s not evidence. You’re taking words on your screen and interpreting them in a way that makes sense to you. There’s a disconnect between what info we are given and the conclusions that should be drawn. None of us can connect the two, only Anet can if they choose.

It is evidence. Evidence is something that allows you to draw a conclusion. The simplest connection/conclusion has been drawn and everybody arguing against it is faulting to a generic/vauge COORDINATOR response that was answering a different question. The quote is taken out of context. If you read the OPs question from that thread then you’ll have the full context

Ethics.4519:

Namu.5712:

1024am my time (mountain time) on a Thursday morning.

I play in the early morning, these servers I garantee you will not ever change population wise from primetime to early morning. Because I have watched carefully for weeks for the chance to transfer.

And if caps increase it will be accross the board for top servers and obvious, a flux of a server or two will not happen.

1024 isn’t exactly an off peak hour. Also in your SS you can see only a couple of full, log back on peak hours around 7/8 and you’ll see a lot more are full.

1) The infamous quote was vague and from a CC. A CC is not a dev, so you’re proving your ignorance by saying “A dev said this”
2) Every single day they go full, and then go very high. Anet is not increasing population server every single day.
3) Off-peak and peak hours are going to vary because you’re combining US hours vs European (around +5hours) and Australian (around +13 hours)

Doubtful I will be back at 7pm my time, how much you want to bet the screen shot will look the same lol.

I didn’t say they were increasing it everyday.

They increased it twice, once for the winter event. Then again about 6 days ago. Other than that the populations according to the world select have been static.

Namu.5712:

Doubtful I will be back at 7pm my time, how much you want to bet the screen shot will look the same lol.

I didn’t say they were increasing it everyday.

They increased it twice, once for the winter event. Then again about 6 days ago. Other than that the populations according to the world select have been static.

Going back at 7 may or may not help, that was only half my point.

You or somebody arguing your point said that servers switch from full to very high because they raise caps. This happens everyday, therefore my argument to that is they don’t raise the cap everyday.

I’m baffled as to why people are arguing against this. It is so blatantly obvious that there is more to it than just counting the amount of registered accounts.

Again, this comes painfully obvious as you log in several times throughout the day for almost a week. I did that since I was trying to follow friends to SoS server which is almost always full. What time did I get in? Sunday afternoon. Coincidence? No

Ethics.4519:

Namu.5712:

Doubtful I will be back at 7pm my time, how much you want to bet the screen shot will look the same lol.

I didn’t say they were increasing it everyday.

They increased it twice, once for the winter event. Then again about 6 days ago. Other than that the populations according to the world select have been static.

Going back at 7 will do nothing, as you didn’t read or understand my point above.

You or somebody arguing your point said that servers switch from full to very high because they raise caps. This happens everyday, therefore my argument to that is they don’t raise the cap everyday.

I’m baffled as to why people are arguing against this. It is so blatantly obvious that there is more to it than just counting the amount of registered accounts.

Again, this comes painfully obvious as you log in several times throughout the day for almost a week. I did that since I was trying to follow friends to SoS server which is almost always full. What time did I get in? Sunday afternoon. Coincidence? No

No one said they do it everyday.

I said I checked every day for the opportunity to transfer off my server…. and by everyday I mean every day like every other hour. Then transferred and the next day for about 5 days all the servers were very high due to them increasing the pop caps.

I said this happened 2 times when wintersday started and again around 6 days ago.

I doubt anyone has even bothered watching server populations in since the 7 day transfer stuff was initiated. The only reason servers looked like they were based on accounts logged in before was because you could transfer every day this of course was chaning server population status’s. But since the server’s went to a 7 day transfer you do not see that any more… There are no servers that will drop from very high to high or from full to very high based on time. Some very high servers may become full due to people creating accounts there but not the other way around.

Like I said I will screen shot the next week to prove my point at 7pm and at 4am which are the precieved highs and lows for most servers. Because as someone that has tried transferring I have watched very closely and there is no flux based on time of day.

Ethics.4519:

Again, this comes painfully obvious as you log in several times throughout the day for almost a week. I did that since I was trying to follow friends to SoS server which is almost always full. What time did I get in? Sunday afternoon. Coincidence? No

If it was this last sunday well I have your answer its because caps were raised… if you noticed all servers that were full were at very high when not even a few hours before they were full and had been full since the wintersday cap increase.

But it will be obvious who is right and who is wrong this coming week as I document each peak time and off peak time. If I am wrong I am man enough to admit it, are you?

Servers are just as populated as they were months ago. That hasn’t changed. What’s changed is that they are all semi-AFKing in Lions Arch screaming “LFG LFG LFG” and LFM LFM LFM" for Fractals groups. And the ones who aren’t? They are in the Fractals.

Tolmos.8395:

Servers are just as populated as they were months ago. That hasn’t changed. What’s changed is that they are all semi-AFKing in Lions Arch screaming “LFG LFG LFG” and LFM LFM LFM" for Fractals groups. And the ones who aren’t? They are in the Fractals.

It was like that before fractals though.

Namu.5712:

Ethics.4519:

Again, this comes painfully obvious as you log in several times throughout the day for almost a week. I did that since I was trying to follow friends to SoS server which is almost always full. What time did I get in? Sunday afternoon. Coincidence? No

If it was this last sunday well I have your answer its because caps were raised… if you noticed all servers that were full were at very high when not even a few hours before they were full and had been full since the wintersday cap increase.

But it will be obvious who is right and who is wrong this coming week as I document each peak time and off peak time. If I am wrong I am man enough to admit it, are you?

Yeah if the evidence is there. My gf switched around 3pm on a thursday when it was dead-ish. It becamse full an hour later and I couldn’t get in. A week and a half later I got in during another dead time.

I have seen the servers change on a daily basis. And don’t just look at full and not full servers. Also keep an eye on very high, high, medium.

Namu, you are plain wrong. I know you are entrenched in your opinion here, but it’s wrong.

I started playing around 3 weeks ago maybe. I couldn’t get in the night I started to Tarnished Coast as it was full. The next day around 3pm EST, I got in with no problem. Now, in your magical world, this mean that the developers just happened to decide that day to change the population so that I could get in. Sure, later it was full again and there were people complaining constantly that it took them weeks to get in, but I guess I’m just special to the developers.

Then a day later, I told my friend about a sale that was going on and I checked the servers. TC was full again. Well darn, but I told her she could always transfer over and how it took me a day to do so. She said okay and begun downloading. Around 10pm est, she finished and…got right in to TC. Wait, so I guess the developers really like her too and decided to suddenly change the population cap for her long after those developers were at home having dinner.

Fair enough, your ‘facts’ are definitely rock solid here. Surely you know what you are…oh, there’s new people joining the server all the time? Well, surely that’s because the developers happen to love those people but hate others since we hear a ton of people complaining that they can’t get in.

But you’re right, it has /nothing/ to do with people logging in and out, it’s just a developer sitting there with a button he hits every now and then to let people in like he’s a bouncer at a night club. /sarcasm

To OP.

I’m in a PVE guild on Blackgate and we have plenty of people online when I play, last night we had 100+ online, just in our guild, which is higher than normal, we mostly have about 70~80 online at one time. We welcome new players almost daily and by new I mean people that have just got the game.

From a quick look most groups were in WvW, Fractals, AC, CoF, LA or the dragon events.

Rhysati.4932:

Namu, you are plain wrong. I know you are entrenched in your opinion here, but it’s wrong.

I started playing around 3 weeks ago maybe. I couldn’t get in the night I started to Tarnished Coast as it was full. The next day around 3pm EST, I got in with no problem. Now, in your magical world, this mean that the developers just happened to decide that day to change the population so that I could get in. Sure, later it was full again and there were people complaining constantly that it took them weeks to get in, but I guess I’m just special to the developers.

Then a day later, I told my friend about a sale that was going on and I checked the servers. TC was full again. Well darn, but I told her she could always transfer over and how it took me a day to do so. She said okay and begun downloading. Around 10pm est, she finished and…got right in to TC. Wait, so I guess the developers really like her too and decided to suddenly change the population cap for her long after those developers were at home having dinner.

Fair enough, your ‘facts’ are definitely rock solid here. Surely you know what you are…oh, there’s new people joining the server all the time? Well, surely that’s because the developers happen to love those people but hate others since we hear a ton of people complaining that they can’t get in.

But you’re right, it has /nothing/ to do with people logging in and out, it’s just a developer sitting there with a button he hits every now and then to let people in like he’s a bouncer at a night club. /sarcasm

No need to be mean about it really.

Just from what I have seen it has been different however I realize now it was an error on my part.

You have to completely close the game and reopen it to get a server update closing the world select window doesn’t refresh it, as one would expect it to.

Just reopened the game SoS is very high from full.

So I stand corrected.

Namu.5712:

Tolmos.8395:

Servers are just as populated as they were months ago. That hasn’t changed. What’s changed is that they are all semi-AFKing in Lions Arch screaming “LFG LFG LFG” and LFM LFM LFM" for Fractals groups. And the ones who aren’t? They are in the Fractals.

It was like that before fractals though.

Not on my server. Orr was insanely alive and well. Sure, most of us were running Plinx over and over again but still, we were in Orr. Now Orr is a ghost town. Scream out at the top of your lungs and maybe 1-2 people will hear you. 0_o

Well, another argument about how server populations are determined. The actual answer is that it is a mystery. Anet has clearly said that it is by Account, i.e., number of accounts on a server. But, there is significant variance that we can witness daily that would suggest perhaps more than the migration of accounts. And, there is the occasional opening up of all servers as happened at the beginning of Wintersday. We truly don’t know anything about any of this. We can make inferences from observations, but I wouldn’t call that evidence, just inferences from observations. Anet holds the material facts on the matter and they aren’t sharing.

But, more to the point of the OP, server population makes a huge difference to quality of life in-game. So much of the game design presupposes populated zones and when that doesn’t happen there is a breakdown that occurs. Since the Nov 15 patch drained the open world on my server, I have made two server tranfers. First to a “better” one and then to the server I wanted with the Wintersday opening of servers. The server I now play on is populated for the most part in every zone I’ve played in. There are actually people in CS fighting the dragons and lower level zones are reasonably populated. Even with the introduction of a grinding community in FotM and all the deleterious effects of gear grind treadmills, the shear population of an actually ‘full’ server (whatever that is) will make a difference in the open world. All I can say is if your server is ‘empty’ do some research on populations and keep trying to transfer as eventually you will make it. It’s still free and everything in-game transfers with you.

Raine.1394:

The actual answer is that it is a mystery. Anet has clearly said that it is by Account, i.e., number of accounts on a server. But, there is significant variance that we can witness daily that would suggest perhaps more than the migration of accounts.

Ugh, except Anet didn’t clearly say that. Again, the post wasn’t clear at all, on top of that it was a community coordinator.

@Namu. When you originally said that you would admit you were wrong, I didn’t believe it all. Thanks for proving me wrong on that one =)

Ethics.4519:

Raine.1394:

The actual answer is that it is a mystery. Anet has clearly said that it is by Account, i.e., number of accounts on a server. But, there is significant variance that we can witness daily that would suggest perhaps more than the migration of accounts.

Ugh, except Anet didn’t clearly say that. Again, the post wasn’t clear at all, on top of that it was a community coordinator.

@Namu. When you originally said that you would admit you were wrong, I didn’t believe it all. Thanks for proving me wrong on that one =)

Well I did set out for proof, I got my proof and it happened to go against what I thought to be true. Mistake was on my end for assuming you could stay logged in and see the servers update dynamically. Which makes me kinda mad that I spent so much time to get on a server and turns out I was doing it wrong the whole time -.-.

Ethics.4519:

Raine.1394:

The actual answer is that it is a mystery. Anet has clearly said that it is by Account, i.e., number of accounts on a server. But, there is significant variance that we can witness daily that would suggest perhaps more than the migration of accounts.

Ugh, except Anet didn’t clearly say that. Again, the post wasn’t clear at all, on top of that it was a community coordinator.

@Namu. When you originally said that you would admit you were wrong, I didn’t believe it all. Thanks for proving me wrong on that one =)

“Connor, when you see a server FULL means that the people who’ve chosen that server as theirs, or players who have moved to that particular server, have reached the cap, independently of where did they create their accounts.”

No amount of context will change the clarity of the Anet statement on the matter. This post clearly says a “FULL” status is determined by account. I wouldn’t argue that it’s true, but it’s clearly what they said and the only “official” post that I have seen.

Namu.5712:

No need to be mean about it really.

Just from what I have seen it has been different however I realize now it was an error on my part.

You have to completely close the game and reopen it to get a server update closing the world select window doesn’t refresh it, as one would expect it to.

Just reopened the game SoS is very high from full.

So I stand corrected.

OMG! This is what I have been trying to get through to you for hours! So how about that signature change now huh? I thought we had a gentlemen’s agreement.

Now we just need to lead Kakeru to the path of truth and light. Maybe your revelation will help him along.

Edit: i’ll also throw in a blanket apology for coming off as condescending occasionally, but this particular bit of misinformation that goes around based on the CC post particularly gets on my nerves because its something everyone can check for themselves by simply opening the game at two different times a day (peak time/off time). It is honestly like two people looking at a red pen and one of them arguing it’s blue because that’s what they heard somewhere. The pen is red! Look at it!

I’m sure there is some sort of social commentary in here that a grad student could right a paper on. Blindly following a bit of information on the internet and vehemently arguing its validity instead of taking a fraction of that time and effort to discover the truth of the issue.

So for those I lost my patience and got snarky with, sorry.

Raine.1394:

Ethics.4519:

Raine.1394:

The actual answer is that it is a mystery. Anet has clearly said that it is by Account, i.e., number of accounts on a server. But, there is significant variance that we can witness daily that would suggest perhaps more than the migration of accounts.

Ugh, except Anet didn’t clearly say that. Again, the post wasn’t clear at all, on top of that it was a community coordinator.

@Namu. When you originally said that you would admit you were wrong, I didn’t believe it all. Thanks for proving me wrong on that one =)

“Connor, when you see a server FULL means that the people who’ve chosen that server as theirs, or players who have moved to that particular server, have reached the cap, independently of where did they create their accounts.”

No amount of context will change the clarity of the Anet statement on the matter. This post clearly says a “FULL” status is determined by account. I wouldn’t argue that it’s true, but it’s clearly what they said and the only “official” post that I have seen.

This was the original question that Eva was answering “What does it actually mean when the server populations says “High” or “Full.” Does ANet go by the number of people CURRENTLY on said server, or by the number of accounts MADE on said server.”

Therefore, the answer is saying that it’s by the people CURRENTLY on said server, and not by the number of accounts MADE on said server. The CC does not state if it’s accounts that are currently online or all total accounts (wheter online or not).

Again, Eva’s quote “independently of where did they create their accounts.” That’s all she is saying, is that it doesn’t matter where the account was created.

I told you to read the OPs question and you refused to do that, ignoring empirical evidence and ignorantly repeating a quote. Because you know, everything Anet says is the truth! Not to mention CCs!

Namu.5712:

Ethics.4519:

Raine.1394:

The actual answer is that it is a mystery. Anet has clearly said that it is by Account, i.e., number of accounts on a server. But, there is significant variance that we can witness daily that would suggest perhaps more than the migration of accounts.

Ugh, except Anet didn’t clearly say that. Again, the post wasn’t clear at all, on top of that it was a community coordinator.

@Namu. When you originally said that you would admit you were wrong, I didn’t believe it all. Thanks for proving me wrong on that one =)

Well I did set out for proof, I got my proof and it happened to go against what I thought to be true. Mistake was on my end for assuming you could stay logged in and see the servers update dynamically. Which makes me kinda mad that I spent so much time to get on a server and turns out I was doing it wrong the whole time -.-.

Fair enough, and to be perfectly honest, I didn’t know you had to completely exit the client either. When I was trying to switch to SoS I just kept closing the world selection window and reopening it.

Now if only everybody would take 10 minutes and go try this themselves they would realize they are wrong. But they are lazy and stubborn and refuse to listen to reason.

Ethics.4519:

Raine.1394:

Ethics.4519:

Raine.1394:

The actual answer is that it is a mystery. Anet has clearly said that it is by Account, i.e., number of accounts on a server. But, there is significant variance that we can witness daily that would suggest perhaps more than the migration of accounts.

Ugh, except Anet didn’t clearly say that. Again, the post wasn’t clear at all, on top of that it was a community coordinator.

@Namu. When you originally said that you would admit you were wrong, I didn’t believe it all. Thanks for proving me wrong on that one =)

“Connor, when you see a server FULL means that the people who’ve chosen that server as theirs, or players who have moved to that particular server, have reached the cap, independently of where did they create their accounts.”

No amount of context will change the clarity of the Anet statement on the matter. This post clearly says a “FULL” status is determined by account. I wouldn’t argue that it’s true, but it’s clearly what they said and the only “official” post that I have seen.

This was the original question that Eva was answering “What does it actually mean when the server populations says “High” or “Full.” Does ANet go by the number of people CURRENTLY on said server, or by the number of accounts MADE on said server.”

Therefore, the answer is saying that it’s by the people CURRENTLY on said server, and not by the number of accounts MADE on said server. The CC does not state if it’s accounts that are currently online or all total accounts (wheter online or not).

Again, Eva’s quote “independently of where did they create their accounts.” That’s all she is saying, is that it doesn’t matter where the account was created.

I told you to read the OPs question and you refused to do that, ignoring empirical evidence and ignorantly repeating a quote. Because you know, everything Anet says is the truth! Not to mention CCs!

I’ve read OP’s question several times now since the original post. The thread title is Server Populations. The question is how are server population statuses determined. The OP’s alternative possibilities included a nonsensical one in that determining server status based on accounts originally MADE on the server, in a world where server transfer is possible and free, simply makes no sense whatsoever. The CM was not closely navigating nonsensical alternatives and making fine distinctions. The CM was telling the OP how the server population statuses are determined—actually. It is clear and it is straightforward.

Again, I’m not arguing that it is by account. I don’t believe the CM response incorporates the whole of server pop management. Again, just saying that this was the Anet response, and the only one I have seen on the issue.

Mystic Beaver.4795:

Really unnecessary to have such a massive, massive wall of text.

I play on Crystal Desert too and there’s loads of people everywhere, always people for events in every zone, lots of people in WvW. Maybe you’re just logging on at too bizarre times ?

Sounds quite like you’re trying to convince yourself. The game world is empty… there needs to be something done.

Raine.1394:

Again, just saying that this was the Anet response, and the only one I have seen on the issue.

I’ll agree with this. However, the fact that myself along with countless other forum users think the CC’s response was unclear, makes it unclear.

If 50% think it’s clear and 50% think it’s unclear, obviously it’s not clear enough for 100% to think it’s clear.

I see how in one way you could get the interpretation you see, but you can also get it my way. There is no way to know which way the CC meant it unless she says.

I could say “The population is determined by the accounts in that world”

Now, most people would probably interpret that as being by accounts, however I didn’t specify if that’s accounts that are online at the time, or total number of accounts online or offline. The original question could have been “Is population determined by account or the number of chickens alive”

In another example that was brought up earlier, we’re looking at 2 red pens and some people are arguing that they are blue. Original question “Are they red pens or are they chicken sandwhiches?” CC Eva replies “They are pens”. Everybody replies “OMG SHE SAID THEY ARE BLUE PENS!”

*No chickens were harmed in the making of this post

Lion’s arch, there’s not much reason to leave it once you hit 80.

Actually on topic now that that other mess has been straightened out (for at least a week, until someone copies that Eva post and tries to make a point with it again), I am on my fourth character on the Dragonbrand server. 80 Thief, 80 Guardian, 60 Mesmer, 50 Necro.

I have noticed fewer people in a lot of zones as opposed to the first month or so. But thats expected as players hit 80. They either play their main characters or rush through areas on an alt and don’t interact with much.

The population also has an ebb and flow because of the free to play nature. Whenever a new mmo or highly anticipated game is coming out, or during play-off season, or between school breaks, you will see a population drop. There isn’t a subscription to guilt people in to logging on constantly.

Personally, I have always found enough people in an area to complete events. With exception the the Fire elemental in Metrica once. And there were plenty of people, they just weren’t high enough level yet. Not only that, but people are communicating more which is nice. A few months ago you just ran from DE to DE and jumped in the zerg. Now people are posting things like events, rich node locations, helping each other with jumping puzzles more and the like. It got less busy, but more social.

I prefer a smaller social experience to the silent zerg, but that might be a personal preference.

The only areas I notice that are pretty much abandoned are the ones with no huge lore connections, world events, or personal story tie-ins. Players tend to stick to the critical path laid out by their story or to the dragon areas. So the secondary leveling zones for the range they are in just get forgotten about except by a few here and there that sprint through them for map completion.

If you are in a critical path zone and cant seem to find anyone to chat and play with, you might want to look at your server. Some servers are really hardcore PvP/WvW and don’t PvE much or do very specific things when they do. Others might have a heavy EU, Aussie, or Coastal population that doesn’t match up with your play times. Unless you have ties to that server that make leaving difficult, just try one or two others to find a place you like better.

AcidicVision.5498:

Actually on topic now that that other mess has been straightened out (for at least a week, until someone copies that Eva post and tries to make a point with it again)

Who cares anyway? You can look down on everybody as much as you want and write 10 posts/hour, game is emptying…
But I can’t prove it, indeed.
No need to show me another red pen.

Alipius.4783:

Who cares anyway? You can look down on everybody as much as you want

I do. I care about my fellow man. I also get embarrassed for other people. So when someone is blatantly wrong, and then publicly blasts how misinformed they are to the entire internet and community, I get embarrassed for them.

I’m that stranger that will tell you at a fancy event that your fly is down when no one else will, because I feel bad everyone is snickering that you look like a fool.

Now, admittedly, I don’t have the patience of a saint. So I get frustrated when I have to tell the same kittening people the same kittening thing over and over again. But on the bright side, when they finally catch on, they have learned something they will never be wrong about and embarrass themselves with it again.

I am a humanitarian!

Logged off until something kicks my interest back. Spent a good few months devoting free time to my ranger and perhaps that, among other things like the personal story, left me too disappointed to continue. I’ve tried elementalist, guardian, engineer and a necro and can’t even break into the 20s. It’s a mountain to 80 I don’t care what anyone says, and it’s boring to do it alone in zones that feel dead with general PvE giving virtually zero rare drops (I’m that special kind of player).

Fractals/dungeons are ok but really nothing has created an itch. Never going to get the gold/karma/sooper rare mats for cosmetic appeal. My main is a medium, not gonna chase after coats. Cap and grind. I’m not doing this again.

Besides, there’s nothing I feel like chasing, so why force myself to play? Fun game, but honestly PvE is just too prosaic to invest in. The charm of GW was completely lost on GW2 for many reasons (few skills/ tight bar/no heroes/no secondary profession/level req/high cap, etc.)

I will hold on and play new content, probably, but like my FL and guild, I’ve gone dark.

As one of the folks who has an account and rarely plays…. I’ve mainly just been waiting for the changes to come over the next few months and see what’s what.

For awhile, I was at that point in the game where the only real dynamic aspect of the game (from a progression or even pseudo-progression standpoint) is WvW…. because I can help conquer an entire map, go to sleep, come back on and see we’re locked at our default spawn point (or something like that). With respect to PvE, it feels too static and unrewarding.

However, if WvW is really the only thing that’s moderately interesting, then I just play Planetside 2 because it has a significantly better WvW system.

Depends on your server.

Ehmry Bay’s starter zones are flooded with people. I was just running Queensdale on my necro and it would’ve been tough for me to avoid running into people, frankly.

Final Fantasy 11 online is 11-12 years old and it’s still alive today,so you’re wrong about no subscription based succesful MMO’s still being alive.

i’ve played 300days/7200 hours on FFXI and still going,thats more game time than all the games i’ve ever played lol,guild wars 1 gave me 250 hours if that

Mystic Beaver.4795:

Really unnecessary to have such a massive, massive wall of text.

I play on Crystal Desert too and there’s loads of people everywhere, always people for events in every zone, lots of people in WvW. Maybe you’re just logging on at too bizarre times ?

Do not listen to the Fan Boys they will defend the game no matter what. I enjoyed reading your “wall of text”. The truth is that low level zones are dead, mid level zones are dead, and high level zones are dead. The only populated areas are WvWvW during peak hours and Lions Arch. Lions Arch will most likely be too populated though and you will pushed to an overflow server. At whic point it’s unlikely you’ll see too many Crystal Desert players, if any. Heart of the Mists is an absolute Ghost Town with the exception of the Anvil Rock server. You are more likely to see people in the Human areas because most players roll Human characters. There is a Guild Wars 2 looking for group website that is great. It’s pretty much the only way to find groups these days.

Theplayboy.6417:

Mystic Beaver.4795:

Really unnecessary to have such a massive, massive wall of text.

I play on Crystal Desert too and there’s loads of people everywhere, always people for events in every zone, lots of people in WvW. Maybe you’re just logging on at too bizarre times ?

Do not listen to the Fan Boys they will defend the game no matter what. I enjoyed reading your “wall of text”. The truth is that low level zones are dead, mid level zones are dead, and high level zones are dead. The only populated areas are WvWvW during peak hours and Lions Arch. Lions Arch will most likely be too populated though and you will pushed to an overflow server. At whic point it’s unlikely you’ll see too many Crystal Desert players, if any. Heart of the Mists is an absolute Ghost Town with the exception of the Anvil Rock server. You are more likely to see people in the Human areas because most players roll Human characters. There is a Guild Wars 2 looking for group website that is great. It’s pretty much the only way to find groups these days.

Gunner Hold ( EU ) is approaching solo game status.

Honestly? I think a lot of people quit. I lasted the longest out of my friends, but in the end not even a precursor drop kept me playing. Too much shady business going on with the gem shop for my liking. I’m playing Mechwarrior now, their cash shop is a complete mess as well but luckily the developers haven’t had enough time to kitten it up yet. Hopefully it will last until Watchdogs or Elite: Dangerous comes out.

They change at different hours of the day; there is a tracker on the 2RP forums for Tarnished Coast’s because it’s so popular. (There are also people in most zones.)

Edit: There is a bug on the forums that mark you as infracted if your post was edited to remove a quote from someone that was. If it’s hard to find the context to some of my comments, its because the person’s posts I was replying to have been wiped away. And this post edited to remove their quotes.

Minor fluctuations are not consistent or reliable. The servers change from higher population during peak times to lower populations in the early morning hours. Consistently. Every night. Since the game launched. There is one conclusion to be drawn from that.

That is not minor. It’s not wrong. An observation made on a phenomenon that is as reliable as the sunrise is not an assumption. It is a 100% logical assessment more reliable and less prone to conjecture than a cm post. And someone doesn’t need to be an authority to notice the obvious trend. You can search the forums for all of the people asking how to transfer to full servers, see all of the suggestions they wait until 3am or later, and see all of the people that did exactly that and succeeded.

Or better yet, you could just look for yourself. One time, coincidence. Twice, okay that’s reasonable and could be random. Do it for as long as it takes you to come to terms with the fact. Heres something to help you get started: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientific_method

Vast majority of people left. All for different reasons. Some were probably going to leave soon regardless, but I’ll admit I’m surprised at the low pop. Really wish Anet would get their stuff together. GW1 was one of my favorite games. Right now the PvE content isn’t fun, (too difficult for the rewards). And the PvP is not balanced unless you play 3-4 of the current professions. The mods on the forums seem to delete half the constructive posts for no reason. Really sad attempt at an MMO from an experienced company. I just think they tried to do too much too fast…..and unfortunately since this isn’t a subscription based MMO, they already have their money and can drop it whenever they feel like it.

SQLOwns.7316:

Vast majority of people left. All for different reasons. Some were probably going to leave soon regardless, but I’ll admit I’m surprised at the low pop. Really wish Anet would get their stuff together. GW1 was one of my favorite games. Right now the PvE content isn’t fun, (too difficult for the rewards). And the PvP is not balanced unless you play 3-4 of the current professions. The mods on the forums seem to delete half the constructive posts for no reason. Really sad attempt at an MMO from an experienced company. I just think they tried to do too much too fast…..and unfortunately since this isn’t a subscription based MMO, they already have their money and can drop it whenever they feel like it.

Where are you guys getting your numbers and information from? People are saying ‘there are only a few thousand players left’ and ‘most people quit’. I just don’t see this as true at all. I play on TC and see a lot of people everywhere. There are also a butt ton of people doing dungeons.

kettering.6823:

SQLOwns.7316:

Vast majority of people left. All for different reasons. Some were probably going to leave soon regardless, but I’ll admit I’m surprised at the low pop. Really wish Anet would get their stuff together. GW1 was one of my favorite games. Right now the PvE content isn’t fun, (too difficult for the rewards). And the PvP is not balanced unless you play 3-4 of the current professions. The mods on the forums seem to delete half the constructive posts for no reason. Really sad attempt at an MMO from an experienced company. I just think they tried to do too much too fast…..and unfortunately since this isn’t a subscription based MMO, they already have their money and can drop it whenever they feel like it.

Where are you guys getting your numbers and information from? People are saying ‘there are only a few thousand players left’ and ‘most people quit’. I just don’t see this as true at all. I play on TC and see a lot of people everywhere. There are also a butt ton of people doing dungeons.

During the first month, I pretty much was put into overflow no matter what zone I was in. WvW had about a 2 hour queue time…..In the last 2 months, I’ve never been put into overflow and no queue time for WvW. Of course my server had an exodus for the WvW, but still. I bet there are less people playing. I started with 4 RL friends and none of them play anymore.

kettering.6823:

SQLOwns.7316:

Vast majority of people left. All for different reasons. Some were probably going to leave soon regardless, but I’ll admit I’m surprised at the low pop. Really wish Anet would get their stuff together. GW1 was one of my favorite games. Right now the PvE content isn’t fun, (too difficult for the rewards). And the PvP is not balanced unless you play 3-4 of the current professions. The mods on the forums seem to delete half the constructive posts for no reason. Really sad attempt at an MMO from an experienced company. I just think they tried to do too much too fast…..and unfortunately since this isn’t a subscription based MMO, they already have their money and can drop it whenever they feel like it.

Where are you guys getting your numbers and information from? People are saying ‘there are only a few thousand players left’ and ‘most people quit’. I just don’t see this as true at all. I play on TC and see a lot of people everywhere. There are also a butt ton of people doing dungeons.

Your playing on the most active server in the game and wonder why there are so many people :S. Logic?

I’d love to know whether people making these posts are just trolling or what. Every area i go to is full of players. EVERY AREA. Any event I do all I have to do is link a wp, in any level map anywhere, and people show up to run the event.

OP, i really couldnt care less about your “MMO History”, that simply means you play too many games. As for the answer to your question, popultion has declined some because of mass bot purgings and other things like folks not liking RNG and DR or they like the fractals for some reason and flock there. there you go.

As for the winner of the monthly quote prize, it goes to Powercat:

“Maybe most people on your server crafted snowflake jewelry?”

Too funny. Nicely stated.

SQLOwns.7316:

Vast majority of people left. All for different reasons.

Most players haven’t left, though some may have taken a break until new content is released or they’re done with whatever game they’ve bought lately. Your server may be less populated, but plenty of others are very busy.